Letting go of Hate
by veronica.toon.7
Summary: AU: What if Zira had grabbed Kiara's paw? What would happen then? What would happen afterwards?
1. Saving the Broken

**Chapter 1: Saving the Broken**

 **I do not own the Lion King 2 or any of its content. All rights belong to Disney. I don't own the cover image either.**

 **Enjoy the story!**

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Granite chipped apart as weight suddenly came crashing down on its brittle exteriors in the gorge. Tiny bits of quartz splintered off along with dust as the world was then shattered into chaos. Airborne dust mingled with fur as two lionesses descended swiftly down the ravine. One, a milkweed lioness with a darker, dorsal stripe running down her forehead, fell freely down the slopes with no signs of stopping. The other, a younger, honey-furred lioness, extended her claws to try and grasp onto the stone to slow her fall.

From up above, several lions gazed in horror at the two's descent. One even, a daring lion with mane of vermillion and pelt of orange, jumped in and grasped onto the walls to assist them. He called out one's name, presumably the one with the honey coloring, for she looked like him and might be related.

The lionesses both kept tumbling down the sides of the ravine. The younger female's efforts by trying to grip onto a ridge in the stone and use her back legs to slow her descent had finally paid off. Her speed gradually came to a stop and her body finally halted right before going over the vertical edge, from which the older female was currently holding onto. Pebbles and dust were pushed off by the younger lioness's back legs and fell freely downward. The rocky substances descended past the lionesses head as it pressed closer to the wall, as if it would aid her body in getting out of the situation she had placed herself in.

All of a sudden, a enormous cracking sound echoed off the rock walls. A dam of logs had been constructed just some ways to the right of the lionesses, and over time a large amount of water had gathered behind it. But as of now, the oddly constructed wall of tree trunks and branches was no longer capable of holding all that liquid back for much longer. Already in some places, later had begun to gush over in small streams over the wood, threatening to grow bigger every second. Since now a lioness dangled over the ravine, she now was faced against both gravity and the soon-to-happen flood in just a moment.

The younger female, now firmly standing down on the ledge above, perked up at the older's small gasps of tiredness and fear. Her head appeared over the ledge, just as the law of force came true once more. Water pushed itself over the top of the dam and came streaming down faster than a cheetah. Seconds passed, and many of the logs broke apart from the dam and followed along in the rapids. The older lioness's eyes turned down and widened at the realization of the other danger she was now in. Her head turned back up and she lifted her paw up more to grasp the bumps in the wall. Just then, the younger's head came visible from on the ledge and her paw draped over the side, reached out towards the older's.

"Zira. Give me your paw," the younger said.

The older lioness's eyes grew wide in shock at first, but narrowed in rage as she took a swipe at the younger's paw with her claws extended out. This action, however, did not leave out the consequences. Instantly, the other paw's hold on the rock began to wane under the added weight, causing the lioness to scrape down the wall a bit more. The younger's determination, however, was not deterred by the added pressure in the situation.

"Zira. C'mon," she called out again. Mica and granite chips fell down from the claw marks in the rock as the lioness kept sliding down. Her crimson eyes changed from rage to fear.

"I'll help you," the younger cried out.

The older's eyes shut for a brief moment as she took the second to think over herself. The tiredness in her muscles was beginning to overpower any strengths she had that was keeping her held up. It wouldn't be long till either her strength or the rock under her paws gave way. Her only option aside from falling a drowning to her doom in the flood below was to grab the younger lioness's paw outstretched to her.

Still, the lioness was Simba's daughter, Kiara. The first and only daughter of her sworn enemy. To allow herself to grasp onto her enemy's paw like that would shame her, shame the entire cause she still held on for.

Why should she even? She had nothing now. Her mate was long dead. Her children, her daughter and son had both betrayed her. Her eldest and last loyal child had been killed in the now-flooding dam below a day before, killed by Simba. Her army had deserted her, defected to the enemy's side. Turned from her loyal followers to her now most hated traitors.

There was nothing for her to hold on to besides this cliff above the raging torrent of fluid below her. It would take only one release and she would fall. Fall, leaving behind everything that was, or had been, above her. The icy waters would sweep her away. The darkness would consume, she would feel no more. When she would wake up again, hopefully she would be reunited with her mate once more. It would be swift and painless and she doubted anyone would miss her.

Still, why was that infernal lioness still holding out her paw to her?

Her arm muscles, the granite wall and gravity didn't give her the time to think. Her claws scraped down the side, sending her body swaying with nothing underneath to hold it up. Her eyes shut tightly in concentration. If she was to fall at this second or any of the seconds that followed, she refused to show fear in front of her enemy, or to even see the shock that would appear on her face as she descended with nothing to stop her. Her time was up, the last of her strength gave way to fatigue. She could grasp on no longer. Her head turned up as she prepared to fall. Her paws started to lift up to as gravity took hold of her.

Red eyes flashed open as a paw was forcibly rammed onto hers back onto the rough stone. Her eyes focused and saw a golden paw with lighter toe fur holding onto hers while an arm extended back up to the top of the ledge and then lioness holding her up still. She stared up at the sudden and strange act she had been pulled into. Her entire body felt numb, yet her other arm subconsciously lifted back up and grasped the side of the wall. Claws extended on their own will and pressed down on a sturdy ridge left untouched by her claw marks before. The flood below her grew farther and farther away as she was lifted higher and higher till her paw hit the top the ledge. She pulled herself up, nearly collapsing onto it.

Her heart echoed on her brain with each beat. Her mind was set only to hear and feel her surroundings. The deep thumb in her chest seemed to lift her chest out more with each breath. Her lungs ached from the quick intakes of air to soothe her aching and tired limbs. Fatigue and dizziness threatened her head and body, but she pushed it away with her alert mind as strongly as she could now.

From beside her, her ears pricked up of the sound of another painting lioness. Her eyes turned and stared numbly at the honey-furred female beside her. After a moment, a pair of eyes matching her own looked up and stared right back at hers. Seconds passed between them, just staring, no sound except for their own labored breaths, beating hearts and, of course, the rushing waters below them.

Finally, she broke the quietness.

"Why?" Her voice was raspy and almost inaudible, though it grew louder and echoed in their minds. "Why did you save me?" Eyes rivaling her color held shock for just a brief second before melting into an emotion that she couldn't begin to understand or describe. Her confusion only grew larger when a small smile made it onto the younger's face.

"I did it because you were in trouble. You were dangling off the side of the cliff, I wanted to save you," she replied. It was a simple response, but it didn't clear up any of the answers she still had in her mind.

"I don't care how you did it. I'm asking why you did it," she asked. The numbness faded away and her eyes narrowed in fury at allowing herself to be so weak to allow herself to be saved by the daughter of her sworn enemy. "Don't you hate me at all? Didn't your daddy ever tell you that Outlanders are dangerous? Didn't he ever tell you that you can never trust us Outsiders? Didn't he ever tell you the reason why we were exiled in the first place? Did he!?"

Fur was on end and her stance was intimidating to say in the least. Anger shown throughout her face and eyes were narrowed with fury. It wasn't hard to imagine why her name could be translated easily into the word 'hate', for that was what one would get a sense of from seeing her. An aura of pure hatred permeated around her. Yet the other lioness remained surprisingly calm. Her form was stilled, yet not ridged as you would expect at this point from the display of fury directed at her. Her expression was silent, yet if you stared into her eyes you would see that deep within their depths you could find sympathy, even sadness if you looked hard enough.

Finally, she spoke, like the calm before the storm. "Zira. I have heard stories about you. I know about all the things you've done. To the pride. To my parents. Even what you tried to do to me. I know you've done some pretty awful things in the past."

Zira's form grew less tense. In the older lionesses mind, she could remember it. She could remember the time she had nearly succeeded in ending the infant princess's life before her exile into the Outlands.

Kiara continued, "But then I realized why you did them."

Zira's posture relaxed more, but from out of confusion. Her eyes were stilled narrowed as she spoke. "Oh. And what might that be?" Kiara's response was silent at first and her voice was almost inaudible.

"I know you did them because you were hurting."

Legs almost gave away in shock and quivered under the weight of the statement. Finally, Zira sat down when her back legs nearly broke down under the sudden pressure. Her mind was frantically searching for an answer for the statement and her eyes were opened completely in mind-numbing shock.

"I think I understand you better now. I realized you were hurting, and that hurting lead way to hate when nothing else seemed to be the answer for the pain you felt. While I grew up, blissfully warm and surrounded by those who loved me, you were out in the Outlands, surrounded by pain and suffering. It was have been so horrible for you."

A moment passed, silence came between them. Suddenly, the fur on Zira's back stuck straight up again and a growl escaped her throat as her fury was renewed once more.

"I don't need your pity, princess! I'm the one who tried to destroy everything you knew and loved. I'm the one who tried to send my son to infiltrate and obliterate everything from under all of your noses! I tried to hurt you and your stupid, merciless parents for taking away everything I knew and loved! Don't you hate me for that?!"

A whisker could drop and be heard at this point. There was no noise at all, as if they were in a soundproof bubble. The calls from the others above could no be heard, nor the slowly dwindling rage of water down below. It was all quiet. Kiara's head dipped down and her eyes closed.

"Hakuna Matata," she said quietly.

"What?"

"Hakuna Matata. It's something I learned from my parents. It means 'you put your past behind you'." Her head then turned up and her eyes seemed to be casting a light over Zira. The hope and sympathy in her eyes was shocking to behold.

"I know you did all these horrible things in the past Zira. But I now know that you did them all because you were hurting and there was no one to comfort you at the time. You felt lonely with no one to sympathize with. When you were exiled, you felt you were being punished for no reason over your suffering and loss.

"I know you spent all this time, coming up with this plan so that you could finally be free of all the pain you felt, the pain you felt over your loss. And now, I can tell you feel sorry now for all you did. Even I can see that you wanted to be free of the hurting you felt for so long. And so I... I can't really hate you, knowing that."

The light, the invisible surge of energy, faded from Kiara's eyes, yet something glinted in the shadow of the rock. A tiny flash of light reflected off a shiny surface, appeared in Kiara's sight, descending down an intricate surface before swiftly falling down straight and landing with a tiny click on the rock beside Zira's paw. The reflective matter was soon absorbed up in a crack in the rock, but then another shiny drop descended beside it. Then another, right where the original had been.

A blur of peach fur stepped forward and grasped onto Zira in a firm embrace. A blurry veil covered Zira's eyes as they widened for just a brief second before shutting tightly and squeezed out more drops of the reflective fluid that soon joined in on the streams that fell on her face. Kiara's front legs held on tighter once a storm of shivers from the now sobbing lioness came forward.

All the pain and hurt, everything she had held back for all those years, broke forward from the invisible dam built around her heart. Breaking like the log dam that had broken just minutes before. After all these years, she finally found the ease and salvation for all the suffering she endured. Scar was gone, the last lion she had ever thought could feel and understand the pain she had, but now another lion had taken his place. A lioness who could feel and sympathize for her, even without feeling the same agony and hurt ever before in her life.

Finally, her heart let go of everything it had held on for all the past years. Finally, now the healing could start.

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 _"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; Only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; Only love can do that" -Martin Luther King Jr._

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 **Consider yourselves lucky, I almost added the "Let it Go" song at the end there. I would like to give inspiration credit from the beautifully done "Don't You Hate Me" comics done by Medli45 on devianart. I hope you enjoyed this, I think it turned out better than I originally thought. I think the real reason why Zira never grabbed on was because like Scar, she couldn't let go of her hate until it was too late. I really wish something like this would have happened though.**

 **Please leave a review and tell me how I did. Your opinions are loved and cherished. Sincerely, v.t,7**


	2. Acceptance

**Chapter 2: Acceptance**

 **I would like to thank "KShara Khan" for their suggestion for the next chapter of this. I'll leave you readers to find out what it was in the chapter. Another thing, I just realized I used a Martin Luther King quote in my last chapter and it's his birthday today.**

 **Enjoy the Story!**

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To say it was easy to get themselves up and out of the chasm was easy would had been a horrible lie. Simba had started down to save his daughter from the dangerous slope, but now he stood perched precariously on a ledge in the wall, looking down as Kiara made her way up, and beside her the lioness who had knocked her down there in the first place. It amazed him to a point of stillness that Zira, the one who had attempted murder on his daughter, was now following her up the slope. No glares, no attempts of tripping her back down, no anger swirling in the depths of her eyes. Her face was surprisingly calm, not a forced calm but almost like a blank, contemplating serenity.

It was as if someone had taken out her negative, intense emotions and replaced them with peaceful tranquility.

It frightened Simba a bit to see his daughter with his sworn enemy. Of course this had been happening lately. First Zira sent her son under the guise of a rogue abandoning her pride to infiltrate and gain the trust of his pride. It had worked and Simba had nearly been killed because of it. His misunderstanding of the situation caused him to lash out in anger to Kovu, forcing him into exile without so much as a fair trial before hand. Only now, after having so much anger and hatred thrown in between a battle between prides, had he come to fully accept Kovu and would go to ask for his forgiveness.

But first, the two scaling females. They were just a few feet below him and using all of their claws and paws to climb up. Kiara was closer to him, Zira not to far behind. Gradually, he held out his paw to her as soon as her head and front arm length became accessible to reach.

Her head tilted up to meet his eyes after they had seen the paw pressed against the rock, there to grasp it. Her eyes made out where his vision was looking at, not at her, but directly towards the lioness behind her. She turned her head to see Zira's face, but she hadt ilted it to the aide, but she could practically feel an aura of regret and some leftover resentment masked by an eerie calm on her.

Finally, she felt another pressure on her, not made from Zira's emotions. Her head turned back to his father, who now had his focus on her. His paw was still there and she slowly slipped her right one in and held on.

"Daddy. Um, I just-"

"Shh. We'll talk more about it later, after we get on sturdy ground again," he spoke quietly. His arm retreated and his paw tightened round her as he lifted her up to the flat platform he was on. Climbing up would be easier for the rest of the way.

His eyes then turned back to Zira. Her head was still down, hiding her expression. He felt the hairs on his back stick straight up in a mixture of worry, fear and almost annoyance. His daughter had saved her, saved the lioness that had threatened to kill her when she was no more than a day old. It confused him to no end how Kiara, who he had told her of it, had saved her almost murderer. The almost murderer that was climbing up and now had stopped right below him.

 _'I shouldn't help her up,'_ he thought. _'She's more than capable to pull herself up. She trained for years, building up muscle strength. She can pull herself up onto the ledge just fine.'_ Her head was still down. She still hadn't moved an inch since Kiara had gotten up and left a free space for her to move up. Her fur was a close hue to the granite she was on. She almost seemed like a frozen statue to him.

He noticed her tail and ears were pressed down close to her, not twitching about. For a brief moment he would say that, along with her dipped head, she seemed almost saddened. And for a brief moment, his heart almost ached in sympathy for her. His ears twitched and his head turned up as a few small chips of rock was brushed down by Kiara. She had stopped, waiting for him and her to continue. His head nodded and then turned down to Zira once more. Then his muscles reacted in a way that shocked him and would shock her.

Little dust particles sprinkled onto Zira's dorsal stripe, forehead and ears. She turned her head up, thinking that the dust had come from Simba's paws and that he had finally moved and given her room to climb up. What she hadn't expected was for him to be above her, looking down with an almost forgiving expression on his face. And it wasn't all that shocked her. Her wide, red eyes traveled down to his arm, to his outstretched paw, just a foot above her. Her eyes shifted to his face again, trying to see if this was really a fasade and not an actual small gesture of help. Nothing, his eyes had the same look as his face.

Unable to stop herself, she hesitantly rose her quickly numbing arm towards him. Her paw hesitantly retracted an inch once it grew close to his spread out toes, but then hovered above his pads before finally touching down on his paw. She immediately stiffened as she felt how warm he was. The warmth spread up her arm as his toes slowly wrapped around her wrist.

She flinched when she suddenly felt Simba pulling her up. Her other paws almost gave way as she almost forgot to move them up the rocky slope. Her muscles felt strangely drained of energy, more than they had when she was hanging off the cliff. Her legs twitched as they struggled to support her after he hand let her up onto the ledge. Her head turned up to him, trying to see if there was any change in his expression. The corners of his mouth were stretched up barely, but it was more of amusement for him than reassurance for her.

You see at that moment, Zira's form and expression looked like that of a cat soaked in the rain, minus the water. He almost had to stifle a giggle at her appearance. It was just a few minutes ago that she had been ready to kill, standing proud, strong and deadly before him. Now reduced to this. Thanks to his experience as king and his control over his emotions, he was able to release his amusement through the small tugs of a smile on the sides of his lips.

Zira's stance never changed, even until Simba had turned around and leapt up to the next ledge above him. It wasn't until the soft clicks of the mica falling on the slope returned her back to her senses. Her right arm was stick warm from the contact and her legs ached too, but some of her strength had returned and she found ability to move had returned. Her left arm lifted up and she took the first step after him.

Both were unaware of Kiara's smile as she watched them from up above before she resumed climbing.

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The wind blew across the lush and tall savanna grass, making it blow like waves in a sea of the Pridelands. Even Zira had to admit she enjoyed the scent of it. It had rained lightly last night and the smell was greater and much calming, at least in her opinion. She sat between the line that separated the ocean of grass and the dusty, rocky ground by Pride Rock. It seemed like she would come to this place to find solace.

It had been two weeks. Two weeks since the battle had ended and peace was between the two prides. Bonds were remade, families were reunited, happiness had returned. Though it seemed like it had yet to find Zira. For the past fourteen days she had avoided or ignored or had been avoided and ignored by the pride. It was hard to accept the fact that the enemy leader had surrendered and no longer meant anymore harm. It wasn't like they were abusive though.

They never let her starve, she always had a place to eat when prey was caught. They hadn't sent any mean or hurtful glares at her. There hadn't been anyone to attempt to strike a blow at her. She never heard any words of hatred or rumors spread about her from the other lions. It just that there was no one to communicate to, no one to speak with. Everytime she got by a group, they would clamp up and only resume when she had passed. She was completely isolated from any activities or conversations.

It was the same with her children, if she could even call them that anymore. They hadn't spoken once since she was here. She knew Kovu and Vitani had responsibilities now, one training to be the next king, the other in the hunting group, but they still had free time. Once during the two weeks she had tried approaching them, see if she could spare a word or two from either or both of them. It had resulted in her just standing there still with waves of sadness flooded over her as Vitani then ran off with some other lionesses and Kovu had eagerly, too eagerly, ran outside to see Simba. The event had nearly sent fluid rushing to her eyelids once more, but she held them in. She wasn't about to lose the habit she'd gained over the years.

The effects had constantly replayed in her mind over the days, even now she felt a fresh twange of pain inside her chest. This place, right before Pride Rock, always gave her time alone and time to think. It was where she could rest mentally and emotionally for a while, but it was like putting a bandaid on a broken limb. It calmed her to a point where she could go about the day, but she bore pain in her chest that she martyred as the hours went by.

The loneliness was like a hole, sucking in anything that got caught and fell into it. She wanted, no, craved attention. She craved interaction. Even back in the Outlands, she barely had any relationships with the other Outlanders, aside from their common goal.

Now... now with everything changed, she had nothing now. She had never had the best social interaction with anyone, except probably some with Scar, and she hoped that in this new life she could build new bonds with the others here. But now... now the idea and hope that came with it seemed to wilt and die like any plant that any foolish seed brought into the Outlands brought forth.

It was just her, her wilted hopes and an idea that seemed like it would never come to pass.

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She hadn't talked or done anything for days. Everyday, the same old routine. She woke up, walked around the place for a bit, ignored everyone else, would sit in that same spot, come in to eat dinner, sit out there more if there was time, then come in, fall asleep and wake up the next morning to do ot all again. Over and over, repeated every day since she got here. It was if she was stuck in a loop.

Kiara didn't like it one bit.

When she had pictured Zira coming to the pride to them, she hadn't expected this at all. Her hope was that Zira's integration into the merged pride would be much easy for her, that her healing would be quick with the new interactions she could have with the other pride mates. Unfortunately, much to her chagrin, nothing had changed. It was all static. All she really did now was sit there and not do anything. She was like a statue. A rock. A perfect target!

So much hunting practice, yet so little results. Her paw pads hurt from so much usage. Kovu had told her, _'if you use the pads to step on before the rest of your paw, then you can make for much quieter stalking'_. But man did it hurt. She had to go to Rafiki twice already to remove some sharp pebble or something out of her paws. Thankfully, there was some soft grass for her feet to land on and some rocks making up the staircase to Pride Rock that also made for an excellent cover.

Using all the techniques she had been taught, she silently stalked from one rock to the next, gradually gaining feet between them. Her head remained low to the ground, her hips started to sway as they prepared to pounce. She felt her tail swish against the side of a rock behind her as it lowered along with her body. Feet turned to inches, she felt her heart racing in her chest. This was it! She was finally going to catch something. Her lungs sucked in air as mentally prepared herself. Her furthermost front paw stretched as far as it could, her claws grasped into the grass and dirt before her. Legs became spring loaded as she took the final second and... pounced!

Wind streamed passed her. She felt as if she had almost become a creature of the air. Her lungs released the air they held and she felt herself become lighter. Her eyes focused on the lioness she was streaming straight at. Her paws raised up and her claws appeared. She quickly hoped that Zira wouldn't be injured after she hit her. A yard between them became a foot. A foot between them became an inch. An inch between them became... the ground.

Zira had to admit, Kiara was getting better at her hunting skills. If it had been any other creature, an antelope perhaps, it would probably had met its end at the paws of the young hunter. Unfortunately for Kiara, she had tried to sneak up and pounce on a fully-trained, fully experienced hunter and fighter. Zira could hear her right at the start, her senses were more acute than anyone else's here. As result, Zira had ducked under Kiara, thrusted her paw right under her shoulder and flipped her down on her back in the dirt below. The younger lioness's mouth gritted in pain while her eyes just stared up widely at her in shock. Zira's mouth curved up in a smirk, for the first time in half a month.

"H-how... how did you do that?" Her words came out stuttered, but still legible to know that she was completely awestruck.

"Please. You tried to catch _me_ by surprise. I don't just train to hunt, I teach it," she replied proudly, but it lasted only a second before she realized her mistake. "I mean I _used_ to teach it, but... but not anymore." Her eyes went dim and sad with memory of her past accomplishments. She taught Kovu, Vitani and the other former Outsiders to fight and hunt, but none of it mattered anymore. What point was there to fight if there was nothing to fight for? She then realized Kiara was watching and listening her, so she got back in check.

"Ahem. Is that everything or have you finished trying to use me as your training dummy," she replied, her regular tone back. Her eyes focused back on lioness on the ground, only for them to widen and her head to cock to the side in confusion.

"What? What are you smiling for?" A wide grin was plastered on Kiara's face as she stared up at the former Outlander queen.

"Teach me to hunt," she whispered. Zira's face morphed into one of shock and she quickly back away.

"Wh-what?"

"Teach me to hunt," Kiara softly replied as she rolled over and got back onto her feet. Her form shook to rid her fur of the dirt and small pebbles caught in it. Once clean again, she took slow, quiet steps towards her. "I want you to train me to be like your best hunters. Teach me." Zira stared incredulously at the princess before her face turned haughty and even snobbish.

"Humph. And what makes you think I'm willing to do that, _princess?_ " Kiara face was confused for a moment, but then the grin was back, big as ever.

"Because you have nothing else to do." Zira's eyes widened at the response, how quick, clever and true it came out as, but she struggled to get her tone back.

"A-and just what makes you so sure of that? Huh," she asked. Her voice betrayed a bit of her anger at her exposed vulnerability. Kiara just sighed and walked closely up to her before reaching out and touching her lightly with her left arm. Zira's expression only changed back to confusion. Kiara's eyes were closed and she took a deep breath before exhaling softly and opening them again.

"Don't think I haven't see it Zira. I know how you react and the pride reacts back to your appearance where they are. I know you spend most of your time out here, all alone, no one to talk to." She took another breath before continuing.

"It honestly hurts me to see you like this. When you came to here with us, I had hoped that you would start healing with interaction and communication with your pride and the new faces in it. It disappointed me when I saw you hanging out alone here. No one in the pride has talked with you in half a month, not even Kovu and Vitani."

At the mention of her two children's names, her eyes softened a bit. Her mind went fondly to the rare and few good memories they did have together, before it realized what angle Kiara was trying to get her at and her teeth bared as she snarled at the next queen of the Pridelands.

"How dare you? It's not my fault they're being so insociable with me. If they and the others don't want to speak or even make so much as eye contact with me, then it isn't any of your business," she growled. Kiara's form had stiffened at her harsh tone of voice and the anger in her expression, but she held her ground and straightened back up.

"Zira. I know you have much to offer here, and I know the others haven't been too... accepting of you here," she paused when she saw Zira's ears flatten in sadness, "But... sometimes you need to be the one who takes the first step to interaction." Zira's eyes stared perplexed at her as her mind processed her words.

"You have so much to share, Zira. Sometimes that's the start to bonding. From what I've learned in life, relationships, whether love, platonic or friendly, they all need a mixture of give and take between them, and communication is key to keeping it healthy. Sometimes you need to be the one who takes the first step towards it. So, what do you say? Will you take the first step and help me help you to forge better relationships, starting with this simple request?"

Silence greeted the two, as seemed to be customary whether the two talked. Zira was still contemplating all Kiara said while Kiara watched quietly and waited patiently for her answer.

Then, for the second time that day, Kiara found herself on her back, but this time with a throbbing pain in her left shoulder. Her teeth gritted in pain and she forced her eyes to look up at the now smirking lioness with her right paw raised slightly with her toes curled tightly against her paw pads.

"First lesson. Learning how to avoid incoming blows," she got down into a playful, threatening position, "-from either me or your prey." Kiara's mouth hung slightly opened for a moment before her lips quirked into her own smirk. She quickly rolled over and got into the same position. Zira's smirk got wider until it was almost a smile.

"Begin," she yelled and pounced towards Kiara.

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Unbeknownst to the two training lionesses, at the top of Pride Rock there were two lions, a deep brown male and a lighter female, staring at them as they fought. The two were expressionless for a moment before wide smiles made there way onto their faces. Both then turned around and entered the cave, knowing well their mother was in good paws with her daughter-in-law.

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 _"Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step,"_ -Martin Luther King Jr.

Happy birthday, you incredible man.

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 **Hope you all enjoyed this, I really think this might had happened if Zira did grab Kiara's paw and later join the pride. Anyways, thanks for reading, please review, and have a happy Martin Luther King day! Sincerely, v.t.7**


	3. Claws Out

**Chapter 3: Claws Out**

 **And so this is me giving into popular demand. I got so many reviews asking me to continue this, so I decided "Eh, why not?" For the record though,, I'm still holding on to my 'no story request policy' but you can add some suggestions if you like to this story, but in moderation! I thought about how this story should go, aside from the requests, and I decided it will be mainly focused on Zira and how she'll face obstacles and hardships as she tries to adapt to her new home while also trying to find her place in the pride.**

 **Enjoy the chapter!**

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"Harder Kiara, harder! Don't stop until I see sparks come out from that rock," Zira barked as she had Kiara practice her strikes. So far she had her smacking a stone until her hits were deemed acceptable. Kiara had been doing this for a good half an hour and she had sweat pouring down her body.

Finally, her limbs felt so drained of energy and almost jelly-like that she fell down on them and leaned against the target as she panted heavily. She brushed away the sweat drops on her forehead and placed it like a visor against it as she stared up at her coach, who was glaring back.

Ever since Zira had agreed to train Kiara on her hunting skills, she had really driven her forward. Zira had quickly realized that her training would have to be intense to make up for all the years she had been starved of the freedom to go out and practice on live prey because of her parent's paranoia of her getting hurt. And while Zira would have liked to have her work on her skills with real animals, Kiara had said no, no because it might disrupt the Circle of Life. Zira had scoffed of course, never really understanding the concept of the of the balanced that moved them all, but she had pitied the princess for her lack of experience and said she would push through, even without prey to work on.

Of course, when Zira deemed she had 'graduated' from all the training, they would let her have her first hunt again and see if she would succeed. If she did, she knew this had all paid off, if not, she would quit and give the reins to someone else to try to teach this hopeless lioness.

Speaking of which.

"Again," she barked after about fifteen seconds of break time. Kiara just groaned and slumped against the rock more. "Again! Don't you know how important this is? This is just the basics of a basic skill to have which you need to get down!"

"T-This is... basic," she panted out while staring incredulously up at her. Zira rolled her eyes.

"Of course it is. All lionesses in my pride learned how to hunt early on. It was a crucial skill to have, especially living in the barren, dry Outlands where the only food was field mice, termites and the rare, dead, rotting crocodile carcass."

She savored the sound of Kiara gagging at the thought of it, but it was true. Many times they were so desperate for food that they would kill the reptiles that lived in the river separating the borders, or swallow down the half-liquified, maggoty meat from the ones that had died. She nearly shivered at the thought of it herself, but desperate times had lead to desperate measures. They could had not afforded to be picky. She shook her head of the disgusting memories and stared back down at the princess.

"Again. Harder. You aren't done till I see sparks fly from the rock," she ordered. Kiara moaned again but obediently got back shakily onto her feet and lifted her front legs up to steady her as she resumed hitting.

"W-Why... is... this... part... of the... t-training," she panted out between each hit. Zira rolled her eyes again and shook her head.

"You'll need powerful and strong front leg muscles of you want to surge forward running in the hunt and having them is good for grasping onto prey and choking them to weaken them while you administer the final blow. Also this practice sharpens your claws. Sharp claws are a key element in both hunting and fighting, good for both defense and attacking. Now quit talking and save your breath!"

For the next twenty minutes, Kiara kept hitting the rock, but in the end all she gained was tired, aching muscles and lack of breath. She finally collapsed to her side and just lay there panting.

"I just don't know what's going wrong," she complained and apathetically thrusted her paw and whacked the hard surface of the rock without her claws out for good measure. It stood pushed against there and Zira then grasped her arm, making Kiara look back up at her shocked.

"That blow there demonstrated both what you were doing wrong and the answer to your problem," she replied. Kiara's head came up a bit from the ground and she stared quizzically at her.

"What?" Zira sighed.

"Your hits take up too much space as they come forward. You need your hits to be thrusted straight forward, not coming out from all over the place. Look." She moved Kiara out of the way and made sure she was watching as she demonstrated. Kiara's eyes widened and her mouth went open in awe as Zira suddenly threw her claws straight forward at the rock. Not only did a handful of sparks fly off the surface from the friction, but several shards and even a large chunk of the stone flew off.

Kiara was stunned as she simply stared at the rock she had been working on for nearly an hour with no luck. Her blows had only given the rock's surface small, thin scratches. Zira's one blow had nearly shattered it in half. Her eyes turned to the lioness breathing deeply who stared back and smirked at her accomplishment.

"You see, you need to concentrate your energy so that your strikes absorb your velocity but leave off excess energy for you make more of them. Now again. We'll go a few more minutes before we'll call it quits for today," she coached. Kiara's legs nearly buckled under her weight as she got back to her feet, but she came back to her spot. Her leg raised up and before she could strike Zira caught her shoulder.

"There's your problem," she said as she pressed her shoulder and arm down more. "You're fearing you'll get hurt when your paw smack against the stone, so you're hitting the air first to avoid the pain. Stop trying to thrust up into the air and bring it crashing down when you'll have a better chance of delivering a blow that causes more damage, more to it and less to you. Now begin!"

Kiara took a deep breath and narrowed her eyes at the target. She look at the spot she was going to hit, just above the area Zira had demolished. Her arm prepared to spring into motion and her heartbeat accelerated again to pulse blood and energy into her appendage. Letting out her breath, her paw thrusted straight towards the stone and her eyes closed as she prepared to strike it.

Her eyes opened again after she felt the bits of rock stop batting against her eyelids and heard Zira's words of approval. She stared down at the rock and where she had hit it. Though the damage wasn't nearly as impressive as Zira's part, a small dent with several small cracks around it marred the smooth surface of the rock.

"Well done, though your claws didn't extend all the way so there wasn't any sparks, but still an admirable start," Zira murmured. Kiara felt a wave of happiness that made her feel giddy come over her. Zira winced as the princess let out a loud yell of joyous delight.

"Ergh, what are you, part screeching vulture," the former queen asked as she rubbed her pained ears. Then to her shock and a bit of her disgust, she felt the lioness's front arms wrap around her neck and start pulling her close to her chest.

"Aagh. Let me go," she growled, trying to remove the clingy princess off of her. Kiara just squeezed tighter and rubbed her head against Zira's shoulder.

"No, not till you realize how thankful I am to you for teaching me that trick," Kiara murmured trhrough her arm. Zira growled, but was lighter in her breaking away. Kiara finally let go after a minute and Zira dusted her shoulders off in case for any nonexistent dirt the princess might had brought onto her after that 'hug'.

"You had better not try to do what you just did when hunting herd animals," she said before turning to leave back to Pride Rock.

Kiara sighed and stared at her front paws. she turned one up to look at it. Her paw pad had many, light scratches on it and a few of her now razor-thin, newly sharpened claws had some blood broken from where they had been stretched to their limits. She then turned her sight back up to the leaving lioness.

"Looks like I wasn't the only one who learned a lesson today," she said as she trotted after her, careful to be light on her sore front paws.

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 **And so ends the third chapter. Now you might be thinking when is Zira going to reform and adjust to her new home and pride, well my answer is this, I'm not going to give her full development right away, she's going to have to go through some number of chapters to better get some sense of how to act here. Plus this story will be mainly focused on her and Kiara helping to overcome her struggles, mentally, emotionally and physically, in order to accept her life as it is now. It will take awhile though, since I predict that Kiara is by the end of the movie and where she is now she a late teenager that still needs to mature herself to be able to teach life lessons to Zira.**

 **By the way, Kiara tips for Kiara striking the stone was inspired by the tips I received about my front-strokes. If you bring your arm down closer to your body and dive your hand down instead of your entire arm first, you gain more momentum and distance in the water. Plus it makes you less likely to splash the person next to you.**

 **Thanks for reading, I'm not sure when I might do the next chapter since I have so much on my hands right now, but I'll try to see what I can do. I'm also going to try to see if I can add some Lion Guard aspects into the story, but it will be different since I'm planning to have Kion being born later than he was in the series. Please leave a review with some feedback and I'll see you again next time. Sincerely, v.t.7**


	4. Rippling Water

**Chapter 4:** **Rippling Water**

 **Thanks for you guys who checked out my new chapter. I have another one here for you guys, hope you like it.**

 **Enjoy the chapter!**

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One thing she could admit about the Pridelands was the quality of the water. Despite there being a river between the borders of here and her home, the water was murky, dirty, and crocodile-infested, making it not worth it to get a drink unless you were absolutely desperate. Rainfall was practically nonexistent there. But here in the Pridelands, when it rained, _it rained_. A downpour had come down last night in fact and the Watering Hole was filled above the brim with fresh, cold water.

As she lapped up the fresh liquid she noticed how pure and sweet it was, compared to the clay-flavored, almost-mud back home. One could only drink about a sip or two of the stuff there before they proclaimed they were no longer thirsty anymore, but here she found herself drinking more than twelve laps per minute. It seemed like she could simply relax and let her muscles become loose just by rehydrating with the sparkling water.

However, if there was one thing that could be uncomforting to her about the water was that unless it was coursing down her throat, it had no place being anywhere else on her. Thus you could imagine the levels of annoyance and passive aggressiveness rising inside her once she felt the chill of the water droplets now clinging to her head and face go down her spine.

Her head slowly turned to the side, her eyes narrowing at the closest creature next to her who was responsible for splashing her head. The princess was giggling at her now sopping wet appearance, her chest shaking with each round of laughter. she felt her own chest heave with each breath in her attempts to stay calm, yet she could only feel the fury of her anger come over her more. Each lapse of laughter coming from her throat seemed to echo in her brain, shattering through her previous thoughts of tranquility and replacing it with the seething anger she felt.

In two seconds, her legs had left the ground. In three she had reached Kiara. In four she used the force from her jump to smash into her and knock her entire body into the water. In six seconds she was laughing as the lioness shrieked in surprise and shock as her body made contact with the chilly liquid. She lifted her head up as she cackled to avoid being splashed more with the drops of water flying everywhere.

Her mirthful laughing continued for a minute longer, until all the water had settled back down in the pond and the last ripples faded away. Zira took a few breaths to regain her composure, before she stared into the now clear water. She could see her reflection staring back at her as she tried to look through the glassy, mirror liquid.

"Kiara," she called out, but as no response came forth she felt a wave of dread come over her. "Kiara," she called out again, louder this time. Her eyes darted back and forth as she tried to find the submerged princess beneath the surface.

All of a sudden, the hairs on her back all stood straight up as a pair of long appendages suddenly shot straight up from out of the water and entangled around her neck. Zira suddenly found herself being dragged down into the cold fluid below as she was pulled down by the pair of legs. Her eyes instinctively closed and her lungs took a deep breath in as she came down under the surface of the water.

In a moment after the water had settled a bit, she and Kiara submerged, both gasping for breath. She slapped a paw across her face to wring the excess water off. When she finally could see, she bared her teeth and growled at the princess laughing at her. When no reaction that she liked appeared from the chortling lioness, Zira swiftly reached out and pressed down hard on her shoulders, dunking a the shocked princess into the water again.

Now the tables had been turned. After seconds of underwater, blowing bubbles, Kiara broke free of her grasp and came up to the surface, bringing forth a torrent of splashes at Zira's face. Zira spluttered as the water uncomfortably flowed unwelcomely down her throat and up her nose. She quick thrashed her paws forward in retaliation, sending big waves back at her. Kiara was stunned for a moment before returning it full fire.

Before they knew it a splash war had escalated. Zira was an experienced opponent, despite never fighting in water before, but Kiara was more determined. They would lean their heads away or dunk under the surface to avoid waves and flying drops of water directed towards them. Eventually, what had started out as a get-back to each other's attack had turned into a spirited activity between the two.

Still, as all good things must, after about half an hour or so of soaking each other the two ended in a draw and climbed exhaustedly onto the shore. The two of them then fell in heaps onto the warm rocks that rimmed the edge of the Watering Hole and allowed the sun to warm themselves and dry their coats. The large stones had absorbed quite a large amount of heat through the morning and afternoon, so it provided a long-lasting feeling of warmth for the two lionesses.

"Hey," Kiara finally said after a few minutes had passed. Zira squinted through the sunlight at her, but otherwise had her attention. "I had fun today. How about you?" The lioness looked shocked, but closed her eyes and turned her head up.

"It was quite... invigorating, though hardly a battle if you'd asked me. A real water fight would had included crocodiles trying to bite pieces off of you, and you still had to defeat your opponent."

Kiara cringed, but still giggled. "Must had really been a pain to remove the crocodiles from your pelt, now wouldn't it," she suddenly responded, Zira looked surprised at her, but gave a small sigh.

"There was worst things in the Outlands then just crocodiles. Dry heat, starvation, dehydration, termites and lice infestation, sickness, overexertion. Basically every non-existent thing in the Pridelands that you can think of. Each day there was a struggle to live through." Kiara looked thoughtful as she imagined the things. True she had heard awful things about, but she had never had it said to her like that. She then turned back to her and gave a small smirk.

"Well we do have lice and fleas, they're just on the monkeys, apes, buffaloes, and wildebeests," she responded.

"Remind me then to hunt for myself when the hunting group returns with any of them," Zira muttered. Kiara looked thoughtful at the notion.

"You know, you could always go hunting with a few other lioness who are picky with the kill," she offered. Zira's eyes stared for a moment,with almost a hopeful expression in them, but then narrowed at her, not just because of the blinding light.

"I prefer to hunt alone." And with that Zira got up and started trotting back into the savanna. Kiara sighed and rolled over to her paws and followed after her.

She was so close this time.

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 **I do think that being an Outlander would be a huge disadvantage. Kinda reminds me of the prisoner's of war in Japan during WWII, where the prisoners from all over the world were forced to work and exercise or do back-breaking labor, all on rotten and/or poor rations each and everyday. I mean no offense to any Japanese out there reading this, it just that I've read a WWII book about it and I was reminded of this when pondering the Outlanders. Of course the difference is that they believed a purpose for training so hard, not knowing the truth behind it, and they forced themselves to do it, with maybe some of Zira's barks at them to do better/more.**

 **Anyways, thanks for checking out the new chapter. Please leave a review and I'll see you next time. Sincerely, v.t.7**


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